The Australian federal police has blamed the Department of Home Affairs for the circumstances which led to the arrest and detention of Hakeem al-Araibiin Thailand.

Under questioning at Senate estimates in Canberra on Monday, it was revealed home affairs took almost three weeks from when it first received Al-Araibi’s red notice to when it told the AFP he was a refugee, by which time he was already in a Thai cell.

Al-Araibi was arrested on 27 November last year when he arrived in Bangkok with his wife for their honeymoon. Thai authorities presented an Interpol red notice, issued at Bahrain’s request, as the basis for his arrest.